The research published in the European Journal of Personality looked at four experiments and showed that college-age men and women who played hard to get ended up with higher-quality partners.

Authors of the study said playing hard to get to make themselves seem more attractive and to test out potential partners' willingness to commit.

Differences were found between men and women. The study showed that women would fill up their schedules and not communicate, while men would act rude, treat others poorly and say the right things but not call.

A report on the study on Yahoo.com described the difference as women broadcasting their interest and making themselves unavailable, while men appeared available and pretended to not be that interested.

The research also seems to confirm that women play hard to get more often than men.